Saturday, October 24, 2009

John and I love the farmer's market. In college, we went to the Eau Claire farmer's market. It was small at first, but we wandered the two aisles of stands over and over, making friends with the vendors. In fact, after an almost break-up, we ended out at the farmer's market together again, because it was still our favorite thing to do. By the end of that Saturday morning visit, we had fallen in love again.

The Farmer's Market, being our absolute favorite place, was something we wanted to include in our wedding through the food and flower choices (in fact we often talked about getting married at the St. Paul Farmer's market). The day before the wedding, we went to the St. Paul Farmer's market and bought most the flowers for our wedding. I spent most of the day before cutting and arranging those flowers while John chopped the fresh vegetables we had purchased for the Groom's Dinner.

Here are a sampling of the flowers:

For the table decorations, I planned on floating peonies in beautiful bowls.

John's Aunt who helped set-up (thank you so much) the reception took it to another level by combining other beautiful flowers with the burgundy peonies.

Vases of beautiful fresh flowers in a variety of colors were placed around the reception hall. Lillies, peonies and sunflowers were all in season.

The sunflowers were stunning. I was surprised to see them so early in the summer.

I filled six urns with white peonies with pink streaks and white and pink snapdragons (my father's favorite flowerfor decorationsnear the chuppah. My mother always loves the smell of eucalyptis (it reminds her of growing up in California) so I made sure the chuppah decorations included it.

We also got married in front of a beautiful garden at my temple. You really can't get anymore local then using plants while they are growing in the earth.

We had a beautiful wedding day. Though the flowers may be details that not many of the guests noticed, for us they were something that made the day truly ours. Flowers from the farmer's market are also a steal. We would have never been able to afford a flower filled wedding without the incredible deals we got. If you are considering an even while flowers are in season, I would really encourage you to pick up the flowers at the St. Paul Farmer's Market. The selection and arrangements will surpass your wildest dreams.